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en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 10:31:10 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=23543&category=tarrant
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=23543&category=tarrantResearchers and collaborators from UVM’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education delivered a record 14 presentations at the 2016 Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE) national conference this week. This opportunity for the Tarrant Institute to share so much of its research at this level supports middle-level educators around the world in pushing their practice forward -- as well as helping guide the direction of emerging questions about young adolescents and their development.

Presentations shared by Tarrant Institute personnel covered personalized learning, student goal-setting, and partnering with students in co-creating learning, as well as findings from an ongoing case study on personalization and flexible pathways in Vermont middle schools.

Mark Olofson, Tarrant Institute research fellow and EdD candidate in UVM’s College of Education and Social Services presented his research on how adverse events in early childhood present unique challenges for students in middle school.

“Sharing at national conferences is an important way to contribute to the conversation about what is happening and what is possible in middle schools,” said Olofson. “Attending presentations and talking with teachers and researchers from other areas also highlights the unique nature of Vermont’s educational ecosystem.”

Several of the presentations involved distance collaboration with educators and students at partnering schools around Vermont. In a case-based examination of assessment in proficiency-based classrooms, educators and students from Burlington, Montpelier and Rutland presented jointly with Tarrant Institute researchers via videoconferencing.

A number of the presentations were also made in a roundtable-style setting, giving researchers the chance to more fully explain the implications of research findings on practice, as well as gather feedback from other middle-level educators in attendance.

Steve Netcoh, a Tarrant Institute research collaborator and UVM graduate student in educational leadership, said of the experience: “A number of the attendees at my roundtable and other Tarrant-affiliated presentations said educators in their states do not have as much freedom to personalize learning because of accountability pressures.” He continued, “Their responses made me interested in examining personalization in states outside of Vermont to better understand how educators are creating personalized learning opportunities for students within high stakes accountability policy frameworks.”

This year’s conference, held in Austin, Texas, also saw Tarrant Institute director and College of Education and Social Services Associate Dean Penny Bishop receive AMLE’s John H. Lounsbury Award.

The award constitutes the AMLE organization’s highest honor. It recognizes a superlative level of achievement in scholarship, service, leadership and contributions to the theory and practice of the ideals of middle level education.

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Sat, 01 Oct 2016 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=23467&category=tarrantSeventh graders from Cabot School in rural Vermont make their way through the historic Flume Gorge route in New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch, guided by signposts marked with bright stars and QR codes. At each post they pull out their iPads and scan the QR code, then use the mobile devices to create a video combining their own reflections on the day with the park’s natural history and geologic significance.

One pair of students creates their own Animal Planet-style show titled “Wolf & Bear Grylls”. They punctuate their frequent shouts of excitement with data about Franconia Notch flora and fauna, gleaned from the historical markers along the route. Another pair of students records themselves estimating the age and dimensions of the rock formation they’re about to climb through.

A third student stands quietly to the side of the guided path, recording the sound of the Gorge rushing down the cliff-face in front of her. “I don’t know,” she grins. “I think I just wanna find out more about moss.”

This opportunity for middle school students to determine the direction and shape of their own learning is at the heart of what the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education, in UVM’s College of Education and Social Services, hopes will be the future of student-directed, technology-rich education in Vermont.

The Institute’s Director, CESS Associate Dean Penny Bishop, and Associate Director, John Downes, first collaborated with the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation in 2006 around a common interest in engaging young adolescents in technology-rich learning. The success of these early initiatives led to a $5 million gift to establish the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education in 2009. In 2014 another $5 million in funding was gifted, allowing the Institute to grow to a team of 10 staff and reach as many as 60 Vermont schools in the next five years.

The Tarrant Institute was founded on the idea that middle school students have specific intellectual, emotional, social and physical needs that, if better addressed by schools, can improve their engagement and learning outcomes. The Institute devotes most of its resources and expertise to providing comprehensive, multi-year professional development to middle schools in Vermont.

Institute staff work intensively with teachers and administrators – during the summer and throughout the school year – helping schools develop an infrastructure that supports effective middle school teaching practices and a culture that sustains educational innovation. In particular, teachers learn to leverage the power of technology to personalize the learning opportunities of their students, in turn increasing their engagement.

The Tarrant Institute's extensive research program examines emerging methods and outcomes from technology-rich, student-centered reforms, using data collected from the schools they work with, and presenting their work nationally and internationally. Tarrant Institute researchers will present a record 14 presentations at the 2016 Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) conference in October.

“Something can be an interesting technological tool, but the real basis behind the Tarrant Institute philosophy is: if the students are interested in what they're learning, they're going to get more out of it. They want us to be really focused on, ‘What gets kids into what we're showing them?’”

Vermont’s Flexible Pathways Act creates opportunities for students to make their education more meaningful and relevant. Implementation of that statewide initiative has helped shape the recent direction of the Tarrant Institute’s efforts to ensure that the Act is responsive to the needs of middle schoolers.

Following the disastorous floods in 2011 that prevented hundreds of thousands of students in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand from attending schools for months, Khienjarern realized the additional potential of a flipped classroom model in the event of natural disasters. According to Khienjarern, "people could not go to work or school because of the floods. But with a flipped classroom, teachers could create lesson plans from home and share them with the students, and the students could learn from home".

Khienjarern created his own teaching videos showcasing the economics lesson for his students to view at their convenience, in their homes. He also assessed student satisfaction with the flipped classroom method, and found that six out of ten students who studied from video media had a high level of satisfaction with the experience.

The idea of the flipped classroom is a model of blended learning in which students spend class time working through problems and activities together or with the educator's help, and watch video-based lessons outside of class. The idea is to maximize the amount of time an educator can be available to provide personalized learning for students during class. The model stresses students' active participation in lessons and an increase in personalized learning.

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Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=15892&category=tarrantPlease join us for a day of iPad-focused sharing and learning. Educators who attended the iPad Summit in Atlanta will share their inspirations and takeaways as well as implications for iPad use in their practice and schools. We'll be offering facilitated workshops in the morning, giving way to an unconference and maker-space afternoon session. Also on site: a gallery walk featuring apps and artifacts from the classroom.

Detailed programming listing to follow.

Complementary lunch provided by SugarSnap. Certificate of attendance available for documentation of professional development hours.

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Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=15394&category=tarrantThis is not an escape. "All you have to do is watch the video until you are given your choices. Click on the one you want to choose and it will take you to the next video. I hope you enjoy! This game was made for the JayIsGames websites Casual Gameplay competition and won Second Place."]]>http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=15395&category=tarrant
Wed, 20 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=15395&category=tarrant

What it does: Allows students to see video of volcanoes in action, provides geographical data about the relative locations of volcanoes around the world. Includes statistics related to eruptions and dormancy, quizzes, jigsaw puzzles and matching games.

Anecdotally, one of our collaborators, Joe Speers, used this app with his 6th grade class last year, and he reported that while he usually has an average of two requests for bathroom breaks per class period, during the classes in which the students worked with this app, there were exactly zero bathroom breaks.]]>http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=14556&category=tarrant
Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=14556&category=tarrant

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Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=14267&category=tarrantWhy We Like It: It's a game, where you shoot germs. And if you choose the wrong weapon, you get sick and croak. What's not to like?

Above, a one-minute screencast of actual game-play, featuring germs, viruses, tapeworms and everything that your students would need to know about killing them.

"Students are influenced daily, by advertising propaganda. It is important to make them aware of media so that they become more critical consumers and less victims of media consumption. We will share an engaging media literacy unit and an advertisement project that incorporates both art and literacy skills and includes a variety of Google tools such as the free graphic program Google draw, and forms, presentations and videos."

The Tarrant Institute was proud to join collaborators from several of their i-Leap schools in presenting at Dynamic Landscapes 2012 this past May in Burlington, and resources and video from those sessions will be made available by the beginning of August. John Downes and Susan Hennessey were joined by collaborators in presenting the highly successful technology strand at the 19th annual Middle Grades Institute in June. Additionally, Tarrant Institute collaborators will be presenting at AMLE and VTFest this fall.

If you're interested in more information or resources from any particular presentation session, please let us know.

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Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=13960&category=tarrantNew in the May 2012 issue of the Middle School Journal, Penny Bishop and John Downes take a look at some initial findings of research they're doing via the iLeap project, seeking to include more technology in Vermont middle school classrooms and curriculums.

"We have learned that preparing schools for 21st century learning is less about designing engaging activities for students and more about unleashing the learning potential of students and the technologies with which they are familiar. The infusion of technology in schools is merely an extension of the extraordinary expansion of technology available to students in their lives. Their spontaneous use of technologies in their out-of-school lives reflects, to a remarkable degree, young adolescents' applications of 21st-century skills in pursuit of personal efficacy. One of our I-Leap teachers said it best: "The shift isn't in the students. The shift is in the teachers. We don't have to convince the students that this is the way to learn."

Per RETN-VT: "RETN recently provided equipment and technical assistance to students from Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington so they could participate in democracy by documenting a Naturalization Ceremony at the school."

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Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=13358&category=tarrant1. What do you like best about your technology integration work here in VT?

Over the decades, technology in schools has evolved as it tried to find the delicate balance between expectations and access. There were times when my students had plenty of computer access, but there were no expectations to be met. That followed with less access; however, the state standards set expectations that could not be met. Now we are finally at a point of balance. Our students have plenty of computer access and there are standards that need to be achieved. Now we are at a point where technology integration can truly be realized and is no longer a dream in the distance. And for me, this is the best part....access and expectations can no longer support excuses.

There are numerous others I could cite. We also shouldn't lose sight of the critical daily interaction between students and technology. In many ways, this is where the real technology learning takes place: troubleshooting, learning new processes, learning new processes, accessing the internet when greater information is needed, evaluating website validity, etc.

2. Where do you see technology integration in five years time? In ten?

Technology integration will continue to develop and evolve. It will move from the sideline into the main flow of teaching and learning in our schools. Its importance will continue to swell, as our society becomes more and more dependent upon technology and digitally skilled people. I hope to see our notion of literacy expand to automatically include media literacy and digital literacy, as we recognize the primary importance of process learning over content learning. And ideally, in ten years, technology will be to the point where it is so universal and embedded that we hardly notice it, with few directives from the state or a teacher required.

3. What do you think the biggest challenge facing technology integration here in VT?

Successful technology integration carries a sizable price tag. As budgets fall with the times, this will have a first order impact upon integration. Unfortunately most technology initiatives start with the question "What can we afford?" I prefer to hear those conversations start with "What do you want our students to know and be able to do?" We'll need to develop more creative ways of funding technology in schools. This is no longer a "nice to have" component. And shared technology is extremely limited.

Another significant challenge will be bandwidth. As schools try to make greater use of online tools, resulting in the opportunity to avoid the platform commitment, available bandwidth in the community will become paramount.For the teacher, the critical aspect is time. As we make greater demands on teachers to increase student performance, the educational emphasis shifts away from learning skills to learning content. Ultimately this is the shift that concerns me the most.

Educators need to recognize that technology integration, after literacy and numeracy, creates the greatest educational point of leverage in the classroom. For Vermont schools, which can be tiny and isolated, this point is critical. But it is not just educators. More importantly it must be parents, having developed their own notion of schooling twenty and thirty years ago, who need to recognize the importance of technology integration.

4. How do you think the field of technology integration can attract and retain more educators?

This is a relatively new field for educators. Some new teachers will be drawn into it and recognize how integration can leverage education. These are the easy ones to attract and retain. I think trying to find veteran educators who are looking to grow is critical.This is exactly what we did here at MEMS with the eLearning grant.

We identified three veteran teachers who were interested and ready to take the next step with technology. They received the professional development experience supported through the grant. And as a result, their students have benefited. I would also suggest that the licensing process around technology integration be modified or reformed. In some cases, the rapid evolution of technology left the graduate course selection in the field in the dust. Think about this: this realm is changing so quickly that Cisco purchased Flip Video for $590 million only to shut down the operation sixteen months later because every smartphone has a video camera of equal or greater quality. Did no one at this tech giant see this coming?

5. What's the one change or improvement in the field you'd most like to see or make happen?

I'd like to be obsolete. Seriously. When my school no longer needs me and our students are independently accessing technology in appropriate and meaningful ways, then I'll know that I have been successful. What would accelerate this process? Less expensive, yet highly functional devices would be a start.

I also believe that we need to shift our thinking beyond the view of classroom technology as project creators. Integration is just that....a blending of digital tools in the learning environment to be used at will be teacher and students alike.

6. How can educators who are interested in bringing change into their classroom work to make that a reality?

They need to start small and think big. Start with changing one element of their professional routine. For example, try using an e-planner instead of the old paper planner. This is a simple enough shift in routine that produces numerous benefits, many of which are difficult to foresee. Or commit to maintaining a class wiki. At first this should be teacher-driven, but at many grade levels, this responsibility could be presented to students. I would also suggest that they attend a professional development event devoted to technology in education. There is no better way to see the possibilities than to get beyond your building and see what others are doing. Yes, the experience will be overwhelming, yet invigorating.

More about Keith Nemlich:

"This year marks my fourth year at MEMS and my third year as the Technology Coordinator. Prior to arriving here, I taught 4th grade to 8th grade students at Flood Brook Union School and the Jamaica Village School. While the computer is a powerful tool, never forget that it was human ingenuity that turned sand into the computer."

6th grader Thomas Suarez talks about creating applications for iPhones, iPods and iPads: how he got started, the environment he creates in, and how the application-creation club he started at his school works with the teachers and districts. A part of the TED Talks series, focusing on Technology, Information and Design.

Way shinier than a standard periodic table. It allows users to explore the elements in a more interactive approach using 3D, rotatable images. Users can also investigate the detailed history, discovery and chemical properties of each element.

While the audio narration is engaging and the environment visually attractive, the feature most impressive to us is the ability to adjust the reading level on each page of the book.

Three levels of text are available with a simple swipe of the finger, which move from simple sentences and monosyllabic words to complex sentences with multisyllabic Tier 3 words. Students can self select and challenge themselves to move up levels upon consecutive reads. Teachers could craft a lesson to work with students to create their own levels of text; the task would be to start from the basic level and build the next two levels by challenging students to play with synonyms and connotation as well as exploring syntax complexity.

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Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=13150&category=tarrantLooking for ideas for how to make the most of your SmartBoard? We've got 'em! Here's a one-minute video featuring TagGalaxy, a web-based utility that pulls in images from flickr and lets you drill down on individual images for more information.

Search on current events! Explore the taxonomy of newts! Or just let your students show you what they're interested in exploring in your classroom.

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Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=13062&category=tarrantIn this follow-up to December's session on iPad apps, we'll work over the LNV system to share more of our favorite apps in action, as well as discuss implementation lessons from Enosburg Falls and educators' personal experiences with iPads in the classroom.

Participants in-person at Montpelier HS will have hands-on access to iPads during the session.

Join us!

WednesdayFeb 8, 20124-6pm

Montpelier UnionHigh SchoolMontpelier VT

Access also available via the LNV network, please contact us to set up remote sites.

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Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=12983&category=tarrantvia vimeo]]>http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=12710&category=tarrant
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=12710&category=tarrantIn a quiet office on the second floor of Mann Hall, Audrey Homan, administrator for the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education types away at her laptop with an expression of bemused concentration. She’s tweeting. In the lingua franca of the online world, it means that with 140 characters, she’s started a whole new conversation on iclickers with educators across Vermont.

“I’m letting everyone on Twitter who's interested in technology or middle level education know about our upcoming workshop,” explains Homan. “We’ll also announce it on the technology educators’ list-serv and post a link on the Vita-Learn and VAMLE websites. Basically, wherever online we think we’ll find folks who’d be interested in attending.”

During the events themselves, Homan frequently tweets on notable quotes or activities as they occur, then uploads the presentations to the Tarrant website as well as distributing a slideshow of event photos via flickr.

As part of a recent federal grant project, the Tarrant Institute created elearningvt.org, a communal blog where middle school teachers from around Vermont contributed artefacts from their classroom work and blogged about them. The website features videos, photos and curriculum units on digital storytelling, learning through gaming, 1:1 laptop integration and a host of other topics. The educators themselves presented the website at May's Dynamic Landscapes conference at Champlain College.

Across the hall, in the Asian Studies Outreach Program (ASOP), Jacqueline Drouin just uploaded new pictures on the program's Facebook page.

“We Facebook, we tweet, we blog,” says Drouin. "Our blog for our Visiting Scholars has allowed us to share with a larger audience the positive impact the teachers from Thailand and China having in the schools." The Visiting Scholar program invites teachers from Thailand and China to spend six months to a year in Vermont. During that time, the teachers contribute weekly posts and pictures, documenting their life abroad for their families and students back home.

On the third floor, at the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion (CDCI), Michaella Collins uses the UVM News Tool to announce the hiring of the new Vermont State I-Team director. "Once the story is published on our webpage via the newstool, I have the option to share the article with twitter, Facebook, blogger, and even LinkedIn." Michaela says, referring to the 300+ social media options the NewsTool story is automatically linked up to. "We're able to communicate with a larger audience."

Getting everyone to tweet has been made easier by the ability for faculty and staff to tweet from their phones, another facet of the social media revolution. Being able to contribute items to twitter feeds and the program websites while out doing field work in Vermont has made staff, faculty and students enthusiastic adopters. "Everyone tweets," says Tarrant Institute director and Education Department professor Penny Bishop. "It's a wide reaching and accessible medium for sharing information. We come across a compelling story, a promising strategy, or intriguing new tool and voila! We can share it instantaneously with our school partners and others."

Everyone at both the Tarrant Institute and ASOP has their own twitter account and tweets automatically feed to the programwebsites.

The urge to use social media is itself viral: “I didn’t really start using social media until the Tarrant Institute moved in across the hall," Drouin said. "Then it was like, ‘How do you use diigo? How are you using Facebook? What’s that website you’re using?’ At that point, a whole world of outreach possibilities opened up.” Because both programs are active in Vermont's social media community, according to Drouin, it's made the learning process easier and, to some extent, helped keep up momentum. The collaborative environment feeds itself, and has recently spread to the rest of the college: at the Dean’s request, the CESS Communications Committee has recently undertaken to increase social media use among its departments. At monthly meetings, staff train each other on new tools and brainstorm ways to use social media to further the missions of each individual unit.

But for Jacqueline Drouin, it’s simple: “Social media is creating a global community and is bringing our CESS community closer together. We can share more easily our accomplishments and support for our missions.”

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Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=12359&category=tarrantProfessional development coordinator Susan Hennessey will show you some ways students can use the iclicker to stay motivated and involved in learning exercises that meet VT DOE standards. iclickers will be provided for the duration of the workshop.

Join the Tarrant Institute for some real-world iclicker exercises you can use in your classroom.

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Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400http://www.uvm.edu/rss/news/?Page=news&storyID=12159&category=tarrant"Kids were born to the idea of rapid change and we weren’t," Marc Prensky explained to his audience. "We live in a completely new context and the context will change again. Get prepared for and plan for, continuous change."

Inventor, author and game designer Marc Prensky addressed more than 100 Vermont middle grades educators, administrators and lecturers to open the 18th annual Middle Grades Conference at UVM on June 27, 2011. Prensky’s latest textbook, "Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning" was one of the seminal texts being used to guide the curriculum at this year’s conference.

Prensky reiterated his theory of digital natives (students) vs. digital immigrants (educators and other adults) and continued to promote the idea that as digital natives, students can more effectively integrate technology into learning by being treated as partners in the classroom, rather than simply learners.

Prensky is a strong proponent of open-phone tests – that is, in-class tests during which students can search for the answers on their smartphones – and to demonstrate, gave the audience 60 seconds to answer a trivia question about a 20th century geneticist. As audience members struggled to come up with the right answer, Prensky commented that students could usually do it much faster, another illustration of the digital divide.

The highlight of Prensky’s keynote came when a panel of ten local middle grades students agreed to answer questions from the assembled audience. "What advice would you give your teachers?" they were asked.

"Change the way you teach every week," came one answer. "Make it interesting," said another student, "or we’re just going to text our friends at our desks."

Another question posed was: "What bores you the most?"

"When teachers talk and talk and talk and talk," came the quick reply. "We just fall asleep!"

Addressing the value of having Prensky come to the conference and expand on his digital natives theory, education department professor Penny Bishop explained, "We are particularly drawn to Prensky's work because of the connections he makes between digital learning and student involvement. Unlike those who merely promote technology as the key to engaging today's young adolescents in learning, we agree with Prensky's premise that educators must focus not ‘only on the changing technology, but rather to conceptualize learning in a new way, with adults and young people each taking on new and different roles from the past.’ Prensky effectively makes the case for students as authentic partners in the teaching and learning process."

Edmunds Middle School principal Bonnie Johnson-Aten, an attendee at the conference said of Prensky’s talk: "Lots of provocative things to consider, lots of things to take back to my staff. Especially the stuff about cellphones."

The Middle Grades Conference is the annual culmination of work facilitated by the Middle Grades Institute, an organization featuring instructors from UVM and nearby St. Michael’s College. This year the conference was also sponsored by the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education, part of UVM’s College of Education and Social Services.

This year’s gathering, which ran from June 27th to July 1st, was the largest in the event’s 18-year history and was hosted by UVM for the first time.